"This guy": Trump-Biden personal venom was on full display during final debate
23 October 2020
Joe Biden twice referred to President Trump as "this guy," and Trump called the former vice president's family "like a vacuum cleaner" for foreign money.
Why it matters: The personal venom — during Thursday's final presidential debate, in Nashville — was a reminder that even during a more normal debate, nothing this year is normal.
- A prime example: "Oh, God," Biden said during an exchange on race.
Foreshadowing the crises he'd face if elected, Biden said America is "about to go into a dark winter" because of the coronavirus:
- "220,000 Americans dead. If you hear nothing else I say tonight, hear this: ... Anyone who's responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president of the United States of America."
- Trump responded that he expects a vaccine "within a matter of weeks": "I don't think we’re going to have a dark winter, at all. ... We have to open our country."
An exchange that captures the two in a nutshell:
- Biden: "It’s not about his family and my family. It’s about your family. And your family's hurting badly. ... [Middle-class families are] sitting at the kitchen table this morning deciding: 'Well, we can’t get new tires — they're bald — because we have to wait another month or so.'"
- Trump: "That’s a typical political statement. Let’s get off this China thing, and then he looks [in mocking tone]: 'The family around the table,' everything. Just a typical politician when I see that. I’m not a typical politician. That’s why I got elected."
Go deeper, with our instant reaction posted last night: Finally, a real debate
Videos:
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.